Chapter 6: The Draconian Plot

In the Sywell mine, the heroes found more draconians. They battled several foot soldiers as well as red-scaled mages who fired necrotic blasts and conjured a stinking cloud against them, but Torbjorn called upon Thor to summon winds that dissipated the cloud. Eventually, the draconians were defeated and the group found that the red-scaled draconians exploded upon death, sending deadly bone fragments flying. As they pressed on, they found an altar to Tiamat displaying 5 dragon heads (red, black, green, blue and white) with precious gems as eyes. Thrain found a poison needle trap within the eye sockets and disarmed it, and the group looted the gems. Dox scouted ahead (after establishing a telepathic link with Thrain and Namira), finding a group of white draconians mining nearby. He also discovered a room with a large chest, a summoning circle and a blue dragon wyrmling guarding it. He returned to the group and they pressed on. The party snuck up on the miners and were able to surprise them, killing one of them before they could respond. After a protracted fight against the white draconians, they searched the room and found that the draconians had been mining salpetre. Thrain found a recipe for black powder and deduced that they were producing explosives. They also found a dwarven helmet with goggles that granted the wearer nightvision. They decided to take a break and rest for an hour and made sure to hide behind and inside crates while resting. Dox used the goggles to scout ahead again, but failed to look for traps and fell into a poisoned spike pit. He used his telepathic link to call for help, and Namira pulled him from the pit with a rope. After this, Namira accompanied him while scouting and helped look for traps. They discovered a room with several cages and a chest filled with armor, a weapon and a traveller's pack. Inside the pack were 3 flasks of holy water. Namira found that someone had been dragged from a cage from this room, but lost the trail shortly thereafter. They assumed this had been Maegor the Silver and headed towards the final chamber of the mine. Though the group attempted to sneak into the chamber, most of them made too much noise and alerted its inhabitants. As they set foot in the chamber, the blue wyrmling unleashed his lightning breath on Thrain and Torbjorn. The wyrmling seized the initiative and unleashed his breath again before they could react, leaving Thrain badly wounded and Torbjorn dying on the ground. Namira rushed to their aid, using her healing magic to bring Torbjorn back into the fight as a massive Draconian Dreadnought appeared from an unseen corner of the room. The large draconian wielded a serrated sword against Thrain, while swinging his large tail at Torbjorn. Namira stayed back and fired her bow, while Dox launched psychic blades at the enemy. Thrain and Torbjorn stayed in melee combat with them, doing their best to fight the overwhelming force. After taking several hits from the others, the wyrmling went in for a killing bite against Torbjorn who responded with a jolt of thunder that ripped the beast's head apart. Dox delivered a healing potion to the downed cleric, while Thrain remembered the grenade he had taken from the Toymaker. He tossed the grenade at the Draconian, who could do little but accept the blast. Finally, Dox launched a psychic blade at the draconian that finished him off. As he died, his body errupted in a fiery explosion that turned him to ash and badly wounded most of the group. But the fight was over, and they breathed a sigh of relief. Where the summoning circle had been empty previously, it now held the butchered remains of Maegor the Silver. In response to the attack on the mine, he had been sacrificed to Tiamat to summon the wyrmling. In the chest, the group found a bag of holding filled with coal, 300 gold's worth of valuables from the town and a fine warhammer emblazoned with the symbol of Thunnor. Torbjorn took the hammer, and the group stuffed Maegor's corpse into the bag of holding. On a nearby table, they found maps and plans that outlined a plot to plant explosives in the sewers of Dragonwatch beneath several key locations in the city. The heavy laden carts leaving the town had likely been filled with black powder heading to Dragonwatch, where the Draconians planned to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting city. Badly wounded, the group returned to the inn and rested for the night. Torbjorn discovered that the hammer was magical and would return to him if thrown (like the mythical hammer of Thor "Mjolnir"). The next morning, Torbjorn used his magic to preserve Maegor's body for the journey. They left town and returned to the temple of Bahamut, where they were paid for returning Maegor's body. Taldor the Pious urged them to try to stop the Draconian plot and offered them beds at the temple for the night. The next morning, they returned to Dragonwatch through the bridge gate...